


The One Where Gus Develops a Video Game Addiction

by ifreet



Category: Psych, The Middleman - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-22
Updated: 2010-05-22
Packaged: 2017-10-15 01:04:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/155397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ifreet/pseuds/ifreet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt/Title by kanzenhanzai.... which clearly was a desperate cry for a crossover with The Middleman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The One Where Gus Develops a Video Game Addiction

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kanzenhanzai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kanzenhanzai/gifts).



Gus was a serious retro gamer. The graphics on his Atari may not look like much anymore, but those old games were compelling. And they didn't over-invest in the backstory: here's a princess, rescue her. Aliens are attacking, blow them up. Simple, and it put the emphasis squarely on speed and skills. If he wanted an epic, he'd watch the LotR trilogy, not pop in a video game.

Then he discovered Battlelands. Barry had given him a starter disc with a year's subscription at the company's annual not-actually-for-Christmas gift exchange (which just happens to be in December), because "you like video games, right, Guster?" He'd looked so puppy-eyed hopeful that Gus had had to open it and examine the documentation and generally pretend to be enthused.

He remembered MUDs. Online games were ridiculous.

***

Gus never saw the ambush coming. Fortunately, Gnomersidkk did. "Get down, SyQ!"

He ducked, and she blasted the bogel sneaking up behind him. "Thanks," he said, as she scooped up the loot.

"Hey, I owed you for that bandersnatch."

"True," he said. Their avatars bumped fists. That mod had totally been worth the hours he'd put into programming it. He checked the area map which was pretty sketchy. It was a new island, very few adventurers had explored it, and the ones who had had been pretty unshare-y with the details. "I think we're maybe halfway to the volcano. Keep going?"

"Absolutely!" Gnomersidkk's voice rang in his right ear, almost obscured by the strange alarm that meant her phone was going off. He heard her move the microphone away from her mouth to muffle the conversation, but she didn't hit mute. "Let me guess, it's the end of the world?"

Her boss's voice carried clearly over the headset. "You're darn touting it is, Dubby. And you were supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago."

From his other side, he heard a theatrically loud groan. "Have you been playing that stupid game all night?

He turned. "Shawn, what are you doing here?"

Shawn tried to raise one eyebrow at him like Spock. Like usual, they both went up. "As you've often pointed out to me, this is an office. I work here. Come on, we've got a case."

"Ok, give me like--"

"Alright, alright, hold your horses, boss, I'll just be --"

"Now," he heard from both sides, and his screen went blank.

"Did you just unplug me? I can't believe you did that."

"It's for your own good. Now come on, real life's a-waiting."


End file.
